Garfield has shown that he is not possessed of the backbone of an angleworm.
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-85), 18th American president, on James A. Garfield (1831-81), 20th American president |
Gladstone appears to me one of the contemptibilist men I ever looked on. A poor Ritualist; almost spectral kind of phantasm of a man.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Scottish historian and essayist on William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98) |
God damn your god damned old hellfired god damned soul to hell god damn you and god damn your god damned family's god damned hellfired god damned soul to hell and good damnation god damn them and god damn your god damned friends to hell.
Peter Muggins, American citizen, letter to President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) |
He brings to the fierce struggle of politics the tepid enthusiasm of a lazy summer afternoon at a cricket match.
Aneurin Sevan (1897-1960) on Clement Attlee (1883-1967), British prime minister |
He couldn't see a belt without hitting below it.
Margot Asquith (1864-1945) on David Lloyd George (1863-1945), British prime minister |
He did not seem to care which way he travelled, as long as he was in the driver's seat.
Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964) on David Lloyd George (1863-1945) |
He has a bungalow mind.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th American president on Warren Harding (1865-1923), 29th American president |
He has all the characteristics of a dog except loyalty.
Sam Houston, American politician, on Thomas Jefferson Green (1801-63), American politician |
He has committed every crime that does not require courage.
Benjamin Disraeli on Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), Irish lawyer, politician and agitator |
He is a self-made man and worships his creator.
attr. John Bright on Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) |
He is like a carving knife whetted on a brickbat.
John Randolph (1773-1833) American politician, on Ben Harden, American politician |
He lived a hypocrite and died a traitor.
John Foster, English historian, on Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector of England |
He objected to ideas only when others had them.
A. J. P. Taylor, British historian, on Ernest Bevin (1881-1951) British politician |
He occasionally stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill on Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) |
He only had one idea and that was wrong. Benjamin Disraeli on a now forgotten MP He is a mere cork, dancing in a current which he cannot control.
Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), British prime minister on Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1836-1908), Liberal prime minister |
He slept more than any other president, whether by day or night. Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) on Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) |
He spent his whole life in plastering together the true and the false and therefrom manufacturing the plausible.
Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) on David Lloyd George (1863-1945) |
He thinks himself deaf because he no longer hears himself talked of.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838) on Vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) |
He was essentially a prig, and among prigs there is a freemasonry which never fails. All the prigs spoke of him as the coming man.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) on William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98) |
He was oppressed by metaphor, dislocated by parentheses and debilitated by amplification.
Samuel Parr (1747-1825) on a speech by Edmund Burke (1729-97) |
